This is the seventh attempt at writing something this week. I threw all the others away.

I would write them and think there were OK at the time, then come back a half an hour later and couldn't stand what I wrote. For a lot of you, it doesn't take that long, which is good for you.

I was torn on what to write given the situation around the area. If I said nothing, it's gutless; if I did, I might say something ignorant since I don't know all the facts. Gutless and ignorant don't look good on my resume. So to keep them off, I am keeping quiet on it, at least for now.

Instead I came up with some words to live by that were going through my head Monday.

Honorable Mention: Chaka Khan loves all in a natural way. This is something that got blasted into the back of my mind, and I drive my wife nuts because I say it at least once a day, or so she says. My daughter Jessie thinks it's the funniest thing she has ever heard, and will prod me to say it just to see the reaction on her mother's face.

The history of this is as follows: Years ago, I had a girlfriend who liked Mr. C's. I am one of the Bob Seger "Old Time Rock and Roll" genre: In a disco, in 10 minutes, I'm late for the door. In any case, I got talked into going down there one night about a million years ago and was greeted with a blast of "Chaka Khan, Chaka Khan" at the door.

It was one of those things -- not quite the burst of light that I believe imprinted the image on the Shroud of Turin, but energy went in my ears and permanently put the repetitive sound of Chaka Khan into my head -- the ultimate example of a song you cannot get rid of. And so I no longer fight it and, in tough times, take comfort in the fact the she loves me "in a natural way." I have no idea what that means, but I still take comfort in it. It's either this or "Achy Breaky Heart."

No. 5: Good is the biggest enemy of best. This adage is, once you're satisfied with where you stand, you have no chance to go further. I used to think I would use the lessons of wrestling to develop a comfortable life in my chosen profession, then stay there. Somehow that never happened. The interesting thing about being "good" is that you don't think you are, and it drives you to be better. The two ways to strive to be the best involve two crucial aspects:

• 1) Judging yourself by your worst day.

• 2) Counting only the last time you competed as having any value, and as the only foundation of where you stand. If you are happy with where you stand, chances are you will go no further.

No. 4: Extreme results demand extreme measures. The secret is to be able to, a) do this within the rules, and b) figure out what the top levels are for you, then do what it takes to get there. For instance, in bodybuilding, with no steroids and -- of late -- not even the usual stimulants, I need to be aware of my age and my limits. Since May 15, I've switched into a high-fat, high-protein, no-carb diet five days a week, with good carb loading two days a week. And bang-zoom-pow: up went my competition weight from 165 in May to 171 most recently.

That was this past weekend at the nationals, where judges told me it was the best they ever saw me. Now a nutritionist or doctor might say that is nuts. But guess what. Blood pressure at 110/70 and being arguably the best-cut guy in a national-level show, even being the oldest, say differently.

It is extreme, and I understand that. Then again, if you hang out with guys whose goal it is to be the best in the nation or world, as in the case of the senior members of the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club, you look at things differently. The reach for the top is not a bell-curve activity. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next year, if somehow the fire lit under me can continue to burn. It won't do so with a mid-ground approach, though.

I did win my height class in North American championships in September, and placed second in the over-50 and third in my open-height class Saturday at the nationals, so it's not like I am not practicing what I am preaching.

No. 3: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

This is from Edmund Burke, and is an exhortation to fight for what you believe is right. However, the major caveat here is to have the knowledge to discern when to fight. Simply fighting at every supposed slight, or fighting when one does not have all the facts, is not what this is about.

On a personal level, it is why I have become so visible in the climate fight over the past two years. At every utterance, the target on my back has gotten bigger, so much so that people I know come up to me and ask me if I was aware of this or that. But you know something: You can't be a baby about it; you have to understand it comes with the territory.

I am not a victim; I am in control of what I want to say and when I want to say it. An appearance on Fox News this summer, in which I tried to explain how minutely small the contribution of carbon dioxide is to the atmosphere and how it's inconceivable that it affects the energy budget of the Earth enough to control the climate, was distorted into making me look like I had no understanding of the so-called "greenhouse" effect. (By the way, the effect is misnamed, as there is no pane of glass trapping heat over the Earth, but it does enlist a vision that people easily can imagine as such. My opposition keeps trying to drive the vision down people's throats.)

But consider: The increase in carbon dioxide yearly is about 1.5 parts per million. Man contributes about three percent, meaning man contributes about one part per 20 million. The United States, which accounts for five percent of the world's population, would contribute about five percent of that. That is one part per 100 million of the increase. Are you trying to tell me that handcuffing the economy over a one-part-per-100-million contribution to what may be a non-factor is right?

The answer is coming very soon, relatively speaking. (Many of us believe it has already started to show itself with the change in the Pacific Ocean to its cold cycle, and the leveling-off of the Earth's temperatures). Since I believe I am right, I am NOT going to do nothing, but instead will bring up these facts to allow the debate to continue to see who is right or wrong. Doing nothing in the face of these figures and the chance to test this because of the change in the natural drivers of the climate? Not going to happen.

No. 2: Solo rischiando tu vivrai: only by risking do you live.

As I get older, I am getting to be more Italian. I love Andrea Bocelli, and this comes from his song "Un Nuovo Giorno," or "A New Day." It echoes the idea that only those who risk going too far can find out how far they can go. How true that is.

The key is wisdom, though, and that blends right in with the idea that one thinks with his or her head and pursues with his or her heart. Wisdom is what Solomon asked for, as it forms the foundation for being able to put yourself into the position to take a risk that you have a chance to take. That is the key: having the chance. There is no risk of doing something if you know you are going to fail. The risk is taking the shot at something where you have a chance at winning.

Take a sports team. Suppose the team is a 10th- to 15th-place team year-in and year-out. That's pretty good. But the risk the team has to take is to figure it out in the off-season and bust its tail, with the knowledge that what the players are striving for may not be the end result. But only by risking do you truly live, understanding what it's like to be in the running and having the test come your way. So questions only you can answer actually get asked.

No. 1: A man's reach must exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?

This is from Robert Browning, a man of Scottish-German descent, as is my wife, Jess. It would figure that my top two would have something to do with being Italian and this, a marriage made in heaven. Since I try to put my wife first, I thought I would do that here. Actually, this has long been a favorite of mine, and something that Joe Paterno gave me without knowing since I first heard it when I heard him saying how much he loved that adage.

But it's a heck of a line. It basically is the top of the Sistine Chapel put into words -- that idea of reaching toward an unknown represented by the deity. I believe it's born within all of us: You have to reach beyond the obvious to find what is not obvious.

Obviously, this is done now. I am sure I will find something else to reach for in a couple of weeks, even though it's tough to grasp that now.